Campaign Finance: Germany and the U.K.

February 2, 2010

Last month, the Supreme Court weighed in on a very contentious issue in American politics: money. They ruled that the government cannot ban corporations from funding candidate elections, arguing it was a violation 1st amendment rights.

President Barack Obama warned it was a huge victory for lobbyists and special interests.

No matter where you stand politically, virtually no one disputes that the way money flows in politics affects its outcome and the tenor of elections themselves.

Today, we'll return to our occasional series Here There, where we examine how other countries approach universal issues. To get a sense of how electoral politics function elsewhere in the developed world, we'll take a look at three different cases: Germany, the U.K. and Japan.

Gregor Schmitz isWashington Correspondent for the German publication Der Spiegel. And Paul Webb is Professor of Politics at the University of Sussex.